Much better than throwing a dart at a map~ (where should I live) (San Jose: apartments)

[defaultstring]

Hello, everyone!

I'm graduating from University of Washington this month, and I recently landed a job in San Mateo which I'll be starting this fall! While I'm extremely excited to start off a programming career in Silicon Valley right out of college, I'm a little nervous in trying to find a place in the Bay Area.

After reading krazyj's post ( //www.city-data.com/forum/san-f...ld-i-live.html ), I feel that there are some striking similarities in our requests, yet the location of my office seems to change the situation entirely :P

Being a 22 year old, I want to be around people my age. It doesn't necessarily have to be a University District where it's *crawling* with young blood, I just don't want to be the only 20-something in my neighborhood. But, avoiding the suburbs seems like a daunting task when trying to limit your commute~ according to google transit, it's good two hour round trip from San Fransisco or San Jose to my place of work. Maybe I could trim this down by living outside of the city?

I quite like the charm of Seattle overcast~ and while the Bay Area doesn't rain as often as I would like, living in a foggier / wetter area would actually please me more than anything

Specific Nightlife / Things I would do frequently:
-Swing Dancing
-House / Funk / Electronica DJ venues (I spin occasionally and would like to look into this hobby)
-Kung Fu / Taekwondo

Within Walking / Biking / Short-Bus-Ride Distance to:
-Farmer's Market
-BART / Caltrain
-Vintage Shops / Cafes / Chinatowns, etc~

I currently live in UW's University District, which feels very comfortable to me:
-Extremely convenient access to public transit which are a short 20-30 minute bus ride to all of my nightlife requests.
-Weekly Farmer's markets / cute little cafes / interesting shops
-Sort of small-townish feel with the people around you, but it's still a big city.
-On the very edge of downtown Seattle.
-Lots of artsy personality~

I've been looking around a bit and so far Daly City, Burlingame, or San Mateo itself might be alright but I was hoping I could get a few more waves in the right direction~

I'm also not adversed to living in the South or East Bay Area. I guess my primary concern is commute time. Any other BART or Caltrain regulars that can ease my woes of a long commute just to live in a hip place?

Any help would be *awesome*

[lmk1707]

Depends on where in the city you live, but if you're relatively close to the freeway (like in the Mission), it only takes about 20-25 minutes to get from SF to San Mateo, not an hour. Even from remoter parts of SF it would only take 45 mins max or so. San Jose would be a longer commute, as would the north and east bay. Have you ruled out SF as a place to live?

[defaultstring]

Not necessarily~ I just don't have a car and I would have to primarily rely on public transit for my commute. But if it's only a 25-45 minute commute as you say then maybe SF is the place to be.

Thanks!

[mayorhaggar]

Well unfortunately all the Caltrain stations in SF are in out of the way places on the east side of the city. If you lived in the Potrero Hill area or Dogpatch you could walk to the Caltrain station at I think 22nd street, or if you lived around AT&T Park in South of Market you could walk to the 4th and King terminus station, but there are mainly expensive condos around there but maybe there are apartments around there too. Other than that I guess you could live in the Mission and take the 22 Muni bus to the 22nd street station, but it takes a while to get there. I would bank on up to an hour to get to San Mateo becaue the 22 doesn't run very often. Other than that you can take the N or T Muni trains to 4th and King but those are also rather slow. You can also take BART down to Millbrae and transfer to Caltrain there, but...it's also rather slow. Really the way they set up the connections to Caltrain in SF is terrible and inconvenient.

You could live in a suburb on the Peninsula near a Caltrain station but then you'd probably want to get a car just to get around when you're not at work.

If you could I would get a car because like the other guy said, it would be a short commute on the highway from SF to San Mateo.

[lmk1707]

Originally Posted by defaultstring

Not necessarily~ I just don't have a car and I would have to primarily rely on public transit for my commute. But if it's only a 25-45 minute commute as you say then maybe SF is the place to be.

Thanks!

Sorry, I missed the no car thing - the commute via car is 25 minutes. Commute via BART/Caltrain would be more like an hour. Public transportation is a little spotty in the Bay Area, so without a car I'd suggest living as close to San Mateo as possible. Of the three options you were considering (San Mateo, Burlingame, and Daly City), I'm inclined to think San Mateo may be the best option. Check out places on craigslist relative to what you can afford, and see what each has to offer in terms of area (and check out walkscore.com to see relative walkability relative to restaurants, etc. - great resource). If you live in the city, you can find people to rideshare with at 511.org - Rideshare, though finding people willing to drive without your driving in return may be difficult.

[mayorhaggar]

Also check out 511.org and try some trip planning to see what is suggested. It's telling me that taking BART from Glen Park to Millbrae then transferring to Caltrain and going to San Mateo would take 41 minutes which isn't too shabby. It's longer than driving but you won't have to worry about gas, traffic jams or finding a parking spot, and you'll be able to read or nap on the train. Glen Park is a nice neighborhood, or you could live near another BART station like the ones in the Mission--16th street and 24th street. If you live on or west of Valencia the Mission/Noe Valley/Castro area is very nice and active, but east of Valencia it gets very sketchy.

Again Dogpatch and Potrero Hill would be the most convenient neighborhood because you can just walk to the Caltrain station, but it's kind of an isolated area and parts of Potrero are very sketchy.

[defaultstring]

Thanks @mayorhaggar and @lmk1707 for the suggestions~ it looks like I'll have do a bit more searching to find a place with a little more reliable access to public transit.

[zitsky]

I didn't notice where your office was located, but it is absolutely possible to live on the peninsula without a car, as long as you live close to Caltrain. Get yourself a decent mountain bike, get on Caltrain and bike from the station to your office. Yes, the bike storage area on the train does fill up sometimes, but you can deal with it. There have been a lot of changes to Caltrain, but I used to commute from Mountain View to San Francisco and loved it. I lived in Mountain View for 12 years and almost anything I wanted I could get after a 2 mile bike ride (Hip restaurants & bars, Used/New bookstores, REI, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Safeway, Peets Coffee, Starbucks, Costco, Sears, etc.) The chain stores are on the edges, downtown Mountain View is considered pretty hip for a small town. I'm sure that having Google there is the reason for some of the improvements.

Palo Alto or Mountain View each have a lot of what you are looking for. I even think that San Mateo is a nice place. It's got a pretty good downtown that seems to attract a younger crowd. Mountain View is Google HQ, and Palo Alto is HQ to many startups. There are many, many young folks working in those two cities, hanging out downtown, and blocking my handicapped space with their fancy imported cars. I'm 40 and I can't walk as far as I used to when I was 20.

I do sympathize about the age thing. I went from living in a Mountain View neighborhood where I had a lot of people my age, to living in a suburban development in NC where folks are way older than me, or if they are not, they are pushing around a stroller. It's a bummer to feel like you're the only person like you in the neighborhood.

P.S. I lived in Eugene, OR for 2 years, so I get the whole cloudy/rainy thing. San Francisco will sometimes get cold and foggy in summer. If you get a car, you can follow CA-92 West until it gets to Half Moon Bay, or you can just go down to Pacifica. Even in summer it can be cold and foggy on the coast. I was always surprised at the number of times it was sunny in my house in Mountain View but HMB or Pacifica would be cold/cloudy. It even worked in reverse, sometimes sunny in HMB and cloudy back home.

[Radical347]

Gah. You totally belong in SF. You sound like a cross between Noe Valley and The Mission which means you should live on 24th St. somewhere between Castro and Valencia...perhaps up to Mission too (one block past Valencia), but don't live past Mission. After a few paychecks from your techy job, consider getting a car. In the meantime, there is a BART station at 24th & Mission; the bus sucks so walk there (which is why I recommend trying to find a place on 24th St, or nearby) take that to Millbrae BART and switch to Caltrain from there. It says 41 minutes but it'll probably be closer to an hour, or more. Driving will be half that.

[defaultstring]

@zitsky Thanks for your post, it definitely addressed *a lot* of the uncertainties I had about living in the pennisula area~ as much as I still feel drawn to the downtown San Fransisco area, your comments made me feel really comfortable about potentially living closer to work. Even if it is a long commute to downtown, I plan on going to Golden Gate Park every Sunday to do some lindy hop swing dancing

@Radical347 You too were also really helpful! I've been doing some searching around that area and things are pretty affordable for my pay right now. I'll continue to keep an eye out, and when I go down to visit in the next couple of months I'll be sure to walk around Noe Valley / Mission to see if it suits me~

Everyone is really helpful on this forum, thanks again for everyone's input so far!